Her body stiffened and her hands fisted. She opened her mouth but closed it as if thinking better of what she’d been about to say. They stood in tense silence. Memories and secrets swam in the air between them.
Finally, he turned to stand beside her and face the water. “This place has helped you heal?”
She didn’t answer right away. Part of him worried he’d upset her, and she’d refuse to answer at all.
Eventually, she sighed. “It has. Mostly because of Ara. But how could I not be happy here? This place is paradise.”
She had a point. How could anyone be unhappy when surrounded by unspoiled beauty? Jungles untouched by society. Crystal clear water.
“I never thought to look for you on an island,” he admitted. Her fear of the water, the ocean specifically, had been too great.
“I figured it was time to face my fears. In life, we’re either going to sink or swim, you know?”
He turned to face her, watching her face as she looked out at what she’d once feared. “So, what did you do?”
Her lips turned up slightly. She tilted her head to meet his gaze. “I learned to paddle.”
He spun to stalk away from her. She learned to paddle. She learned to paddle? What the fuck? She’d left him alone, confused, worried. And all this time she’d been here, in fucking paradise . . . paddling? He wanted to understand. She’d been in pain physically and emotionally. But so had he. And she’d only added to his pain by disappearing. If she’d been somewhere mourning, recovering, he could understand. Instead, she’d been on a fucking vacation. Sleeping with a local. Making a life.
He turned back, ready to damn her for her selfishness.
“Oh my God.” With her eyes wide, she stepped forward and placed her palm on his stomach.
His abdomen tightened. His body stilled. All but his damn traitorous, thundering heart. Her touch shouldn’t affect him anymore. She certainly shouldn’t have the power to zap his mind of all thought.
“What happened?”
Her voice spurred him into action. He followed her gaze to the angry red scar running across his abdomen and disappearing behind the waistband of his boxer-briefs. He shrugged. “I was in an accident.”
“Oh, Ian.” Her voice hitched. As if she actually cared.
She stepped closer. He shuffled away.
Dropping her hand, she straightened. “Was it a car accident? Did someone hit you?”
The way someone drunk and foolish had once hit her parents and stolen her family from her.
“No. It was just me . . . and a pole.”
Her piercing eyes narrowed. “You were drinking?”
He clenched his jaw, unwilling or maybe unable to answer.
“You could’ve killed someone. What were you thinking?”
Oh, hell no.She didn’t get to walk away, leave him suffering, and then judge him. Fuck that.
“Excuse me.” He surged forward, pressing his face close to hers. “While you ran off to this island to learn to paddle, I stayed behind and tried to drown.”
Her mouth fell open, mirroring the perfect wide O of her tear-filled eyes. “Ian—”
“No.” He held up his hand to stop whatever sympathetic bullshit she planned to spout. He didn’t need her pity. And he didn’t need her.
He turned on his heel and stomped away from her. She’d been right. He needed to do his job and go back home. Now that he knew Cameron was alive and enjoying life without him, he could move on and forget about her.
If only.
* * *
Cameron picked her way slowly through the woods toward her home. Her confrontation with Ian had left her drained. No longer was she used to the riot of emotions she experienced around him. Always, he’d made her feel more than anyone else. One look from him made her body tingle and her heart pound. The very first time he’d touched her, her body had flared to life in ways she hadn’t known possible. Apparently, she still reacted similarly. Despite the pain and anger now clouding the air between them, her body was again awake with sensations she hadn’t felt in years. Desire. Lust. Longing. She wanted Ian. Her body ached with the need to feel him against her, within her.
But her heart hurt. Ian had never been the man she’d thought. He’d betrayed her with Mallory. He hadn’t wanted their child. And he’d become a man who would drink and get behind the wheel, knowing how his actions could affect others. The man she loved would’ve never been so careless.
And yet.
When he talked of her walking away, she could swear he genuinely hurt. Although she’d been gone almost six years, her leaving still seemed to cause him pain. Which made no sense. She’d left to give him the freedom she thought he wanted.
Scrubbing her hands over her face, she tried to erase the feel of Ian’s skin beneath her palm and the desperation in his dark eyes. He’d said he tried to drown. She hadn’t left to hurt him. Despite the ways he’d hurt her, she still loved him too much to purposefully inflict that same pain on him. Leaving him was supposed to free him and heal her.
“Hey, Doc. What’s up?”
Cameron froze and lifted her gaze. Keso stood on the porch of her tiny cottage. Just what she needed.
“Ara’s still resting. Brodie’s still unconscious. I thought I’d come see how you’re doing.” He stepped off the porch, his flip-flops slapping against the dirt of the path she and Ara had worn to the beach. Stopping in front of her, he shoved his hands into the pocket of his worn khaki shorts and studied her. “What’s wrong?”
Where to begin? He’d be better off asking what was right. That answer would be short. Ara was alive. Her daughter surviving was the only positive in the past two days.
She couldn’t share her concerns about her ex-fiancé with Keso. He didn’t know it yet, but he hated the doctor who’d saved their daughter. For years, Keso had blamed Ian for Cameron’s inability to commit to him. Though if he were honest, Keso would admit what Cameron already knew—he didn’t really want her to commit. He thought they should for Ara, but he didn’t love Cameron enough to only want her forever. Besides, Cameron believed Ara was better off in a home with only a mother than with two parents who didn’t love each other enough.
Instead of venturing into her problems with Ian, she told him, “We need to talk about the plane.”
Keso flinched. “The plane? The one that crashed?”
“No. The one that blew up. The plane someone blew up.” She stepped around him and made her way to the porch.
“Why would someone blow up a plane?” He followed her and now stood just inches behind her.
“Do you know who owned the plane?” She glanced over her shoulder to gauge his reaction.
His face went completely still. Not one speck of emotion broke through. Her heart squeezed painfully. Keso was about to lie to her.
“I haven’t heard.”
She closed her eyes and gave her head a slow shake. “You’re a terrible liar.”
Not true. Keso was an excellent liar. They both were. They’d had half a decade of practice. But she knew him too well for him to be any good at deceiving her.
He lifted one broad shoulder. “So what if I know? I just didn’t want you to worry.”
“Not worry?” She spun to face him. “How can I not worry? If Victor Roberts’s plane is here, he’s nearby. Our family isn’t safe. You’re not safe when he’s near.”
“I’m working on—”
“That’s what I mean,” she yelled. “You’ll do anything to punish him. That man isn’t the only one whose actions can hurt our family.”
Keso studied her through narrowed eyes. A muscle in his jaw ticked.
“Did you have anything to do with blowing up that plane?”
He glared at her, refusing to answer.
“Keso, I swear if you had something—”
“I didn’t blow up the damn airplane. I’m a boat captain. What the hell do I know about blowing up planes?”
Probably nothing, but he spent plenty of time in the seedier parts of the big island. He could find someone with the necessary skills.
She dropped her yoga mat on the porch, then perched her hands on her hips. “Ara could’ve died. Brodie may still die, because of that plane. If you did that—”
“I didn’t do it,” he bellowed.
She flinched. Keso never raised his voice. Even when he was upset or angry, which rarely happened, he kept his voice low and managed an amiable smile.
“I won’t lie. I want him dead, Doc, but I’m hardly the only one.”
Oh, he’d lie. When it came to Victor Roberts, Keso would lie to protect those he cared about. Until now, she hadn’t thought he’d lie to her though.
“Innocent people were on that plane.” Tears filled her eyes at the memory of the young bodies pulled from the water.
“No one associated with that bastard is innocent.” Keso’s mouth barely moved as he bit out the words.
“Keira.”
At the mention of his younger sister, new anger flared in those signature Lawrence eyes. “Don’t,” he whispered.
“Girls like her were on that plane. Innocent girls who—”
“They’re luckier than Keira then. She deserved quick. Painless. Instead . . .”
No need to continue. Cameron couldn’t forget the agony Keira suffered before her small body finally gave up. Cameron had done all she could, but Keira’s body had no more fight left. The girl had fulfilled her goal. She’d secured Keso’s promise, then she’d surrendered.
A tear slid down Cameron’s cheek. She swiped at it uselessly. Others raced to take its place. “I understand you hate him and want vengeance.”
Keso huffed. “No, you don’t. She wasn’t your sister. You didn’t see how he changed her, how he ruined her.”
“How he murdered her?” She jabbed her thumb at her own chest. “Keso, I’m the one who couldn’t save her. I’m the one who promised her she wouldn’t die and then held her as she did just that because there was nothing I could do. Don’t tell me I don’t know what he did to her.” Her voice broke as a sob clogged in her throat.
“But you gained from her death, didn’t you?” he accused.
Her hand shot out, connecting with his cheek before she even realized her intent to slap him. Keso’s wide eyes glistened.
She cradled her hand to her chest. “I would never have done anything to harm your sister,” she spoke through her own tears. “I wanted her to live. I would’ve given anything to save her. Don’t you dare make it sound like I’m glad she’s dead.”
How could he accuse her of profiting from the death of an innocent girl? True, there were things in her life she wouldn’t have if Keira had lived. But maybe there were things she would have too. Maybe she would’ve eventually found the strength to return to face Ian and her old life.
“You’ll only hurt everyone if you go after Victor Roberts,” she warned as she stepped back. “Especially Arabella.”
To the bottom of her soul, she believed those words. No one challenged Victor Roberts without paying heavily for that defiance. Keso may not care what the mobster could do to him, but the other man wouldn’t bother to hurt Keso directly. Arabella and Cameron would be the ones to suffer. After seeing the ways the monster had used and abused Keira, Cameron didn’t relish even the thought of how he’d use her and her daughter to punish Keso. Roberts wasn’t just a mean man. He had no moral compass and no fear of the depravity that lived within him.
When Keso only glared at her, she continued, “Someone’s need for vengeance against that man has already hurt our daughter and friend. I won’t let it happen again.”
Keso shook his head. His blond curls bounced. “You think you can stop it, Doc? The things that man’s done—he deserves to die. If it’s not me, then someone else.”
Fear and anger flooded her veins. “Not at the expense of Ara. I won’t see her suffer the same fate as—”
Keso surged forward, clapping a hand over her mouth. “Don’t.” He met her gaze. Tears filled her eyes at what she saw staring back at her. Keso was just as terrified as she. Roberts had the power to ruin the life they’d built as effectively as he’d ruined Keira.
Against his palm, she whispered, “If you go after him, he’ll hurt her.”
Sighing, he released her, then ran his shaking hand through his hair. Hopefully, he’d take her words to heart and leave the other man alone. Victor Roberts couldn’t notice them. If he did, he might connect them to the girl he’d allowed his men to use and leave for dead. They needed the bastard to stay away and leave them to the lives they’d forged on this island—and the secrets they’d buried beneath them.